Presentation Tips for Scientists and Networking Importance

a.a. 2022-2023 Corso di Chimica delle Macromolecole I Presentazioni Orali Prof. Federico ROSEI Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Farmaceutiche federico.rosei@units.it C11, Aula 3

Survival Skills For Scientists

Scientific meetings and conferences Scientific meetings and conferences The 3(+1) reasons to attend a conference 1. To present your work 2. To learn from your peers work 3. To network with your peers +1. the conference is in a nice location, e.g. Hawaii, Florida, Australia, Paris, Rome, etc. (not uncommon)

Networking is important Networking is important! ! Networking can help you to: Find a job Develop collaborations Recruit good people (students, post docs, professors, etc.) Some of the scientists you meet at conferences are the ones who referee your manuscripts and grant applications. (Likewise, you will be asked to comment on their work at some point in your career). Having them know you personally can help.

A few tips on presenting to an audience A few tips on presenting to an audience Don t try their patience! Don t go over time (never ever !) Rehearse in front of a friendly audience, and use their (hopefully constructive) criticism to improve your presentation (both content and form) Prepare backup slides for questions that come repeatedly (15 ways )

1. Cover too much material 15 ways 15 ways 2. Include too many details 3. Start with too much small talk 4. Run over the allotted speaking time 5. Avoid telling the audience why your research has been done 6. Overestimate, or at least fail to assess, the audience s level of knowledge 7. Fail to make contact with the audience 8. Ignore the inherent difference that exists between written and oral communication 9. Waste time searching for a specific overhead file somewhere in your pile 10. Use unexplained terminology, abbreviations and acronyms 11. Use unexplained symbols in text or equations 12. Use unexplained graphics 13. Present overhead transparencies that are unreadable 14. Read in extenso from projected transparencies 15. If the moderator has just introduced you to the audience, alienate both parties by opening your presentation with such details as your name, your affiliation and the title of your talk Peter Sigmund, Odense University (Denmark), Physics Today, August 1998

Guidelines for Guidelines for a truly a truly terrible talk terrible talk Strict adherence to the following time-tested guidelines will ensure that both you and your work remain obscure and will guarantee an audience of minimum size at your next talk. Slides and Viewgraphs 1. Use lots of slides, ~one for each 10 seconds of time allotted for your talk. If you don't have enough, borrow the rest from the previous speaker, or cycle back and forth between slides. 2. Put as much information on each slide and viewgraph as possible. Graphs with a dozen or so crossing lines, tables with at least 100 entries, and maps with 20 or 30 units are especially effective; but equations, particularly if they contain at least 15 terms and 20 variables, are almost as good. A high density of detailed and marginally relevant data usually preempts penetrating questions from the audience. 3. Use small print. Anyone who has not had the foresight to either sit in the front row or bring a set of binoculars is probably not smart enough to understand your talk anyway. 4. Use graphs and tables from publications. They will help you accomplish goals 2 and 3 above and minimize the amount of preparation for the talk. If you haven't published the work, use illustrations from an old publication. Only a few people in the audience will notice anyway. 5. Make sure at least one slide is upside down or sideways. This relieves tension in the room.

Guidelines Guidelines part II part II Presentation 1. Don't organize your talk in advance. It is usually best not even to think about it until your name has been announced by the session chair. Above all, don't write the talk out, for it may fall into enemy hands. 2. Never, ever, rehearse, even briefly. Talks are best when they are given spontaneously with thoughts organized in a random fashion. Leave it as an exercise for the listener to assemble your thoughts properly and make some sense out of what you say. 3. Discuss each slide in complete detail, especially those parts irrelevant to the main points of your talk. If you suspect that there is anyone in the audience who is not asleep, return to a previous slide and discuss it again. 4. Face the projection screen, mumble, and talk as fast as possible, especially while making important points. An alternate strategy is to speak very slowly, leave every other sentence uncompleted, and punctuate each thought with \ahhh," \unhh," or something equally informative. 5. Wave the light pointer around the room, or at least move the beam rapidly about the slide image in small circles. If this is done properly, it will make 50% of the people in the front three rows (and those with binoculars) sick. 6. Use up all of your allotted time and at least half, if not all, of the next speaker's. This avoids foolish and annoying questions and forces the chairman to ride herd on the following speakers. Remember, the rest of the speakers don't have anything important to say anyway. If they had, they would have been assigned times earlier then yours.

Oral Presentations Oral Presentations Start with an outline (not to be included) Speak clearly Put yourself in the audience s position You are telling / selling a story Be critical in your choice of Figures and words to describe them. Ask colleagues to listen to you speak (both experts and non- experts in your field) Be demanding of yourself 9

Scaletta) ) Outline ( Outline (Scaletta Title Authors + affiliations Introduction (Why) Experimental / Methods (How) Results / Discussion (What) Conclusions (Outlook: What s Next) Acknowledgements

Tell a Story Tell a Story Make sure the Introduction can be understood/appreciated by non specialists in your field. Whenever possible use Figures (micrographs, spectra, etc.) Use technical jargon only when absolutely necessary Convince the audience that your work is outstanding and that they should go read your papers to learn more about it

Story Story Introduction: it s like the store window. If you don t captivate your audience here, consider it lost [explain WHY you did this work] Prepare clear Figures; write clear captions. Tell your story around the Figures. Figures should be made up of graphs, spectra, microscopy images. Discuss them in detail.

Conclusions Conclusions Summarize your work and why it is important Outline perspectives for future work: Good Science Opens New Doors!